Home buying and selling improvement: user research privacy notice
Privacy notice for the ‘Home buying and selling improvement’ research with citizens.
Applies to England and Wales
DLUHC is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data.
The Home buying and selling policy team is considering reform the home buying and selling process. The project will include research with people who have recently completed or are in the process of home buying and selling.
The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you how personal data will be processed as part of this project, by both DLUHC staff and TPXimpact, our third party provider.
We are only allowed to use, gather, and share personal information where we have an appropriate legal basis to do so. We only collect and process personal information to fulfil our legal and official functions. We will only use personal information when the law allows us to and where it is necessary and proportionate to do so.
You can also view the DLUHC general privacy charter.
The identity and contact details of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
DLUHC has an appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO) to help ensure that the Department fulfils its legal obligations when processing personal data. You can contact the DPO using the details below.
DLUHC dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:
Data Protection Officer
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
What personal data we are collecting and why
There are 2 activities in which we collect personal data.
1. User research survey
What type (categories) of personal data is contained in the asset?
- full name
- email address
- age bracket
- region lived in
Why are we collecting this data?
In the survey we collect the personal data listed above, as well as some information about your home buying and selling experiences. This enables us to create a database of potential research participants. We can then us to segment users into different groups. We will then draw upon these groups to invite people to the different rounds of research.
We collect your name and email address in this survey so we can contact you in the future and invite you to take part in ongoing research that will inform the development of government policy relating to the ‘Home buying and selling’ reform.
The User research screener enables people to opt in and agree to take part in the’ Home buying and selling’ research.
2. In-depth interviews
A sub section of those that sign up to take part in the research will be invited to take part in the research itself. The research will take the form of an in-depth face to face or virtual interviews where you answer questions about your experience. Those that take part will be sent a permission form to sign prior to the interview. We will ask for your agreement to record and share the outputs of that recording.
At the start of the interview participants will be told that they should not bring up any of their personal data or of those that they live with. The questions will be structured and will not require personal data to be shared. Should any personal data be raised by participants the interviewer will be paused and the participant will be reminded of the need to not rely personal data. After the interview any section where a participant mentions personal data will be deleted.
This research will be used to inform policy and decision-making as part of the ‘Home buying and selling’ reform.
Lawful basis for processing the data
We are using the following lawful basis under UK GDPR to process personal data:
- Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR – processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. As part of the delivery we aim to improve the home buying and selling process for UK Home buyers and sellers.
We do not intend to collect any sensitive (“special category”) data about you. Should this inadvertently occur, we will look to anonymise and delete this data at the first opportunity.
With whom we will be sharing the data
Your personal data – (Name, email address, your responses to questions, and video recordings of interviews) will be stored on our database. Names, email addresses and responses to questions will be password encrypted and will only be accessed by the research and design team. The research and design teams working on ‘Home buying and selling reform’ are made up of staff from DLUHC and a third-party provider – TPXimpact.
When we conduct research, we play back our findings only and not including personal date to, people working on ‘Home buying and selling’ reform. Our findings will be played back to other people working on the project from within DLUHC and our third party contractor TPXimpact.
Our findings are shared in a range of ways including quotes and edited video outputs. No other personal data will be shared with findings. Quotes will be unattributed and participants names will not be displayed in the audio clips.
Data processors
In addition to DLUCH the data will be processed by:
- Delib – who provide the Citizen space platform we use to collect survey data.
- TPXimpact – who have access to relevant DLUHC files and folders in their role as providing research and design support.
Storage, security, and data management
DLUHC has a duty to safeguard and ensure the security of your personal data where we process this. We do that by having systems and policies in place to limit access to your information and prevent unauthorised disclosure, accidental loss, or alteration of your data. We have also procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
For how long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.
Your personal data will be kept only as long as it is necessary for these permitted purposes. We will delete your data by 31 December 2023
You have the following rights:
a. To know that we are using your personal data
b. To see what data we have about you (but not anyone else)
c. To ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate
d. To complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) see below
e. We will respect the right to erasure on request.
In some circumstances you may also have the right to object to particular use of your data. We will tell you when these rights apply.
Is any personal data sent overseas?
We are using citizen space to collect your data. Citizen space is based in the EU. Citizen space will only have access to the data you provide in the initial screener. They will not have access to the data we collect during the interview process.
Complaints and more information
When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.
If you are unhappy with the way DLUHC has acted when using your sponsor data, you can make a complaint.
If you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact the relevant data protection officer at the addresses above.
If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, you can contact:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745 ICO website